Until a few years ago, every fifth real estate in Serbia was out of tax records. Even today the property databases do not show the real situation in cities and municipalities. The project "Property Tax Reform" funded by the Government of Switzerland, implemented by IMG, will work with 40 municipalities throughout Serbia to improve this situation.
Representative of IMG, Alexander Grunauer, leader of the project “Property Tax Reform“

02/02/2018Property Tax Reform Programme in local media in some of the 45 municipalities participating in our Program

The project team of the program "Property Tax Reform" will be visiting local self-governments in Serbia participating in our program during the current and the following month, where the first enumerators should soon start working in the field. The plan is to meet and get to know the representatives of all municipalities more closely, and to explain in more detail what the next steps within the program will be, and what each municipality may expect. The municipalities should receive the first financial contracts for payment of enumerators by the end of February, while the first workshops for the preparation of action plans in the area of "good governance" will begin in March or April.
Information about the project for local media, on behalf of the project team, was given by Jelena Holcinger, Tax Specialist.

The first planning workshop of the "Property Tax Reform" program gathered around 100 people from local self-governments from all over Serbia. The main discussion topics were shortcomings and how to overcome them in the field of property tax, as well as methods and experiences in the field of good governance.
The program will last for next four years, and in that period we will provide municipalities with financial (such as remuneration for enumerators who will conduct the fieldwork) and technical support. Technical support includes various trainings, seminars as well as assistance in inter-municipal cooperation, involving citizens in decision making processes on how to spend money from property tax.

20/12/2017Property Tax Reform Programme signed memorandums of understanding with 56 local self-governments in Serbia

Memorandum of Understanding with 45 municipalities and 11 cities is signed, and “Property tax reform” program begins its closure cooperation with local self-governments from mid-December. Ceremony of signing was attended by Mr. Branko Ružić, Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, H.E. Swiss Ambassador in Serbia Philippe Guex, Ms. Ursula Läubli, Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Serbia, Mr. Đorđe Staničić, General Secretary of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Mr. Alexander Grunauer, team leader of the Program "Property Tax Reform", as well as 56 mayors of program partner municipalities.
In total, 92 municipalities from all over the Serbia have expressed their interest to join the program. In order to encourage inter-municipal cooperation, one of the key selection criteria was the joint application.
H.E. Swiss Ambassador in Serbia Philippe Guex said that over the past 12 years, Switzerland has been cooperating with Serbia and a large number of very important projects have been completed.
„The largest program now is Property tax reforms”, said Philippe Guex.
“We are very happy with such a great interest. Beside the more efficient collection of property tax, we also aim at encouraging municipalities to govern better. It means that through our assistance we would like to increase citizens participation in local government decision making processes including the decisions on spending the money collected through the taxes”, said Ursula Läubli, Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Serbia.
The total value of the program is six million francs. One million is dedicated to the five most successful municipalities in the process of tax collection. The program will last for four years.
The project is implemented by the International Management Group

A research of the "Property Tax Reform" project showed that around 12 percent of real estate is still out of tax records. In order to improve these statistics, the Swiss Government and IMG are starting property registration in 45 cities and municipalities throughout Serbia. Five of the most successful will split an incentive fund of one million francs.
Representative of IMG, Alexander Grunauer, leader of the project “Property Tax Reform“

Until a few years ago, every fifth real estate in Serbia was out of tax records. Even today the property databases do not show the real situation in cities and municipalities. The project "Property Tax Reform" funded by the Government of Switzerland, implemented by IMG, will work with 40 municipalities throughout Serbia to improve this situation.
Representative of IMG, Alexander Grunauer, leader of the project “Property Tax Reform“

Ninety-one local self-governments in Serbia applied for our project "Property Tax Reform". The three criteria according to which we will choose 40 of them to be working with in the next four years are the following: group application, because it gives a chance for better inter-municipal cooperation; then, the motivation of cities and municipalities and how well they presented it when they applied; and also what they have done on the property tax reform themselves, without the assistance from donor organizations.
Representative of IMG, Alexander Grunauer, leader of the project “Property Tax Reform“